The Emmys Honored Roger Ailes In Memoriam & Twitter Is Not OK

There's a lot to unpack about the way that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chose to memorialize the departed this year. The live music, the weird picture frames, the guy accused of sexual harassment... Wait, what? Yes, the Emmys honored Roger Ailes "In Memorium," and Twitter was not OK with it. And while viewers weren't lucky enough to be treated to an audience reaction shot, there's certainly something to be inferred from the fact that every other actor, writer, producer, or seemingly-nice gaffer you've never heard of got something between a cheer and a polite smattering of applause, but Ailes' photo was met with stunned silence.

To recap: Ailes was the co-founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fox News, which is enough to make him persona non grata among Hollywood's mostly left-leaning base. But when former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit accusing Ailes of sexual harassment in 2016, it opened the floodgates and, as a result, at least half a dozen former Ailes employees came forward with similar public claims against the late producer, alleging that he'd pressured them to enter into sexual relationships with him in order to further their careers, according to Axios. Some say they acquiesced, while others claim that they didn't, and were punished accordingly. Ailes denied any wrongdoing.

I think it's safe to assume we've all heard that trope about not speaking ill of the dead, but couldn't the producers have "forgotten" to include Ailes? Or maybe ruled it out on the grounds that he wasn't so much in the "entertainment" business, more like the "put a super conservative spin on the news and try to get America to believe their president is really Kenyan" business? At least, that's what Twitter had to say (among other things):